(JNi.media) The search committee for the next Attorney General on Sunday recommended Cabinet Secretary Avihay Mandelblitt, according to a statement by the Justice Ministry. Mandelblitt was the only candidate who received four out of five committee votes, although the one objection came from former Supreme Court Chief Justice Asher Grunis. The current AG, Yehuda Weinstein, will end his term at end of January, 2016.
Avihay Mandelblitt, 52, is PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary. He served as the IDF Judge Advocate General, has a doctorate in Law, and retired from the IDF with the rank of General. At age 26 he took on religious practice under the teaching of Kabbalist Rabbi Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag, son of the translator of the Zohar into modern Hebrew, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Halevi Ashlag.
Despite his religious inclination, Mandelblit is not necessarily the darling of the religious right. He set a precedent in opening his door to hear testimony from left wing political organizations, and even permitted NGO Checkpoint Watch to give lectures to IDF soldiers. In an interview with Ha’aretz in 2009, Mandelblit said, “The collaboration with B’Tselem has been the most prominent. They help us reach witnesses, investigate complaints. They do their job and I do mine. Our interests do not coincide, but with all the criticism against us by those organizations, their aim is to reach the truth.”
During Mandelblitt’s service as JAG, the Military Prosecution applied eight court orders against Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, in the form of orders of demarcation of outposts — facilitating the accelerated evacuation of outpost neighborhoods.
Mandelblitt filed indictments against IDF fighters who, in his opinion, transgressed the law, and following the Goldstone report directed the military prosecutor’s office to investigate and prosecute about 140 fighters who participated in Operation Cast Lead. However, none of those cases showed the IDF deliberately hitting innocent people, and they served as the basis for the conclusions of the report compiled by the army and the military prosecutor’s office to refute the Goldstone report—which Mandelblitt dubbed “vicious lies.”
Mandelblitt referred to the activities of the IDF Dept. of International Law during Operation Cast Lead: “The laws of war are designed to regulate and reduce, but not prevent, the death and destruction which are part of the reality of war. The lawyers of the Military Advocate General are working to help the IDF to fight within the boundaries of these laws, against an enemy that knows no boundaries.”
In 2014, Mndelblit was investigated by police for his role in the Harpaz affair during his service as JAG. The Harpaz affair was born by a battle between Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, over the appointment of the next COS. The affair involved General Yoav Galant, General Gadi Eizenkot, Colonel Erez Weiner, and a document counterfeiter named Lt. Col. Boaz Harpaz. In May 2015 AG Weinstein closed the file against Mandelblit.